The “pieces” I am referring to are my Chinese heritage, my experiences growing up in China and recently moving to the US, and my mom’s experiences growing up poor during the Cultural Revolution in China. The idea behind my sustained investigation is twofold: I not only address these three areas of my identity conceptually, but through artistic forms of separation, I visually display each of them as separate pieces or layers of my identity. These include vellum on top of a watercolor planar study (Through the Looking Glass), collage pieces with spaces in between them forming a portrait (Detached), patterning (from Chinese porcelain artwork) as texture (Interwoven), or simply implementing the color red–a powerful color in both Chinese culture and the Communist Party–as symbolism in multiple pieces (One Generation Apart & Detached). Throughout my sustained investigation, I practiced with collage, took risks such as experimenting with patterning as texture, and revised my ideas to bring the concept of “pieces” into every piece. Whether it’s pieces of a map (A Dilemma in Color), or a collage (Mosaic & Detached), I attempt to put together the pieces of the puzzle that is my identity.